Roosevelt, Theodore | First edition of The Rough Riders, inscribed by Teddy Roosevelt with a long quotation from the book

Roosevelt, Theodore

The Rough Riders. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899

8vo (210 x 141 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Roosevelt and 39 photographic plates; frontispiece foxed, title-page torn at top of inner margin. Army green cloth, front cover and spine gilt-lettered, front cover also gilt with a facsimile of the bronze service medal awarded to the regiment, plain endpapers, top edges gilt, others uncut; spine darkened, extremities rubbed, a few stains, front free endpapers loosening. Green cloth slipcase.

First edition, inscribed and signed by Roosevelt on the front free endpaper, 27 May 1899, with a lengthy extract from the first chapter, "Raising the Regiment": "With hardly an exception they entered upon their duties as troopers in the spirit which they held to the end, merely endeavoring to show that no work could be too hard, too disagreeable, or too dangerous for them to perform, and neither asking nor receiving any reward in the way of promotion or consideration."

Roosevelt's exploits in the Spanish-American War, and his publication of this memoir, played a significant role in his being chosen to replace Garret Hobart as William McKinley's running mate after Hobart died in office.

PROVENANCE

Alfred Paul Bay (book label) — Maurice Neville (Sotheby's New York, 24 April 2017, lot 100)